The present invention relates to a method and an arrangement for binding round bales of agricultural produces by means of a rope guiding arm which winds a rope about the bales.
Harvest produces taken from a so-called swath are received into a pressure chamber of a round bale press and spirally wound therein until the thus-formed round bales reach a diameter filling the interior of the press. During further feeding of the harvest produces into the press the round bales are compressed, and after this are bound by a binding material which is helically convoluted about the bales. Then, the bales are discharged from the press. In the conventional presses a problem is arising that the convolution of the binding material or rope about the bales requires considerable attention to be paid by the driver. On the one hand, the rope must be sufficiently convoluted about the bales so as to hold the latter, and on the other hand, unnecessary convolutions of the rope must be avoided in view of economical considerations. It has to be guaranteed that the bales in the end regions must be bound several times in the same location since no knots are provided for securing the ends of the rope. As for the central regions of the bale, it is sufficient to helically wind the rope about the same. Bale presses with binding arrangements has been known, in which the rope guiding arm can be turned by a tractor driver manually by means of a traction rope. A second traction rope is utilized for actuating the cutting arrangement for cutting the binding rope. It has been also known to actuate the rope guiding arm and the cutting arrangement by means of a single traction rope. The operation with the traction ropes for performing the binding and cutting steps requires increased attention of the tractor driver. It has been also known to move the rope guiding arm by an electric motor with the aid of a spindle or a rope winch, or by a hydraulic cylinder. During binding for controlling the speed and/or for changing the direction of movement of the rope guiding arm, the latter must be manually engaged so that the driver in these arrangements must also constantly persue the binding process.